Friday, October 16, 1998
Screen Scene
‘Apt Pupil’
Directed by Bryan Singer
Starring Ian McKellen and Brad Renfro
Who would have thought a Nazi on the lam could be refreshing?
But Bryan Singer’s (‘The Usual Suspects’) adaptation of Stephen
King’s novella is just that, largely because it features none of
the following: prime-time female bellybuttons, a poppy soundtrack,
jump-out-from-behind-the-curtain fright factors, or so-called
homages to yesteryear’s horror flicks which in actuality draw more
from last month’s horror flick.
More importantly, ‘Apt Pupil’s’ creative team knows how to
construct evil. It is a careful blend of concept, character and
imagery, the result of which draws viewers into an uncomfortable
chasm of the human soul. The two souls in question are aging Nazi
officer Kurt Dussander’s and curiosity-ridden high school student
Todd Bowden’s. The sharp, savvy Todd finds the object of his
obsession living the quiet life in a southern California bungalow.
But is membership in one of history’s most villainous movements
something you can retire from?
Todd (a stone-faced Renfro) quickly lays it out for the
age-spotted Dussander (the ceaselessly versatile McKellen): unfold
the past in explicit and exclusive detail or discuss war crimes
with a bevy of government officials. But as Dussander warns in a
thick German accent, ‘You’re playing with fire.’
The apprenticeship becomes a battle of power that goes beyond
Dussander merely bulking up his old murderous muscles. If we’re
unsure who is the manipulator, we’re sickened at evil’s tendency to
shift and spread. In convincing, calculated performances, Renfro
and McKellen keep us guessing. Renfro is no put-upon Neve-esque
coed; McKellen exudes genuine grandfatherly charm that renders
Dussander slightly more sympathetic and immeasurably more
frightening.
Singer frames his stars with ghosts and grit. The film is low on
bloodshed, opting instead for quiet moments of forced introspection
 Singer is not afraid to let audiences squirm at the thought
of their own thoughts. When Todd forces his blackmailee into a
custom-made S.S. uniform, the rusty Nazi flinches and stands
silently. But just when he seems like a helpless old man,
overwhelmed with painful memories, all the power of his position
floods back with the barbed angles of a swastika, the fiery crimson
of the party color. A similar power overcomes Todd as he bounces a
basketball inches from a wounded pigeon.
The rhythm of the basketball echoing in an empty gym meshes with
the cadence of Dussander’s march, the chant of local skinheads and
the music that surges through Todd’s gas chamber nightmares. Such
touches recall the fluidity with which people fall into step and
‘just follow orders’ Â not to mention underscore Singer’s
abilities as a cinematic storyteller.
Cheryl Klein
‘Practical Magic’
Directed by Griffin Dunne
Starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman
It’s a comedy. No, it’s a drama. No, it’s a thriller. The
problem with ‘Practical Magic’ is that it tries to be practically
every genre.
Based on Alice Hoffman’s novel of the same name, the film tells
the story of Sally (Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Kidman), bewitching
sisters with very different attitudes toward love. The two have
inherited the gift of magic as well as the family curse. Any man
who falls in love with an Owens woman is destined to an untimely
death.
‘Practical Magic’ begins decently enough, setting up the magical
tale in an appropriate comedic tone. After losing their parents,
Sally and Gillian go to live with eccentric Aunts Jet and Frances,
wonderfully portrayed by veterans Diane Wiest and Stockard
Channing. They give the aunts a perfect blend of quaint oddities
and genuine concern, serving up life lessons and chocolate cake for
breakfast. Sally grows up yearning for a normal life while Gillian
recklessly breaks hearts.
And Sally almost gets what she wants when she gets married and
has two girls. But alas, do not forget the curse. After losing her
husband, Sally withdraws and grieves, turning the film into a sappy
drama. But more transformations are to come. When Gillian’s
boyfriend Jimmy (Goran Visnjic) becomes violent, the movie, with
the wave of a wand, shifts into thriller mode. Soon the sisters are
plagued by Jimmy’s spirit and officer Gary (Adian Quinn) who has
come to investigate his disappearance.
‘Practical Magic’s’ failure to successfully integrate the
different tones of the film hinders its storytelling. Instead of
encompassing all genres, the film doesn’t have enough of each.
Jumping back and forth between styles, the movie leaves the
audience feeling a bit jostled and taken aback. The courtship of
Sally and Gary is too short and eclipsed by the ghost storyline.
The ending of the film is also too sudden and far too
fortuitous.
Despite the film’s structural inadequacies, with the help of its
strong cast, there are some genuinely touching scenes and comedic
moments. Too bad it can’t make the tonal inconsistencies magically
disappear.
Stephanie Sheh
‘Cannibal! The Musical’
Directed by Trey Parker
Starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone
With the ‘South Park’ craze still in full force, it is of little
surprise that movie and merchandising companies are doing as much
as they can to reap the benefits from the trendy phenomenon the hit
animated show has spawned. This past summer has already seen the
David Zucker film ‘BASEketball,’ a box office dud starring ‘South
Park’ creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who can challenge for
the title of the most overexposed duo of 1998. But rest easy,
Parker and Stone fans. Opening this Friday for a limited one-week
engagement at the venerable Nuart Theater with midnight screenings
to follow is ‘Cannibal! The Musical’, a film so unapologetically
terrible that it actually becomes somewhat enjoyable to sit
through.
‘Cannibal! The Musical’ was actually made more than four years
ago when writer and director Parker was still a film student at the
University of Colorado. As a straight-to-video feature, the film
has actually enjoyed a small cult following which can undoubtedly
be attributed to the success of ‘South Park.’ There are already a
number of Internet websites solely devoted to the campy musical. As
one would expect, Troma Films, the small distributing company that
has provided the populace with such art-house classics as ‘Sgt.
Kabukiman, NYPD’ and ‘Surf Nazis Must Die’ decided to release
‘Cannibal! The Musical’ into theaters hoping for a ‘Rocky Horror
Picture Show’-like success.
Though ‘Cannibal! The Musical’ can match ‘Rocky Horror’ in its
amusingly confounding silliness, it unfortunately lacks the all-out
crazed fun that made its predecessor so appealing. Based on the
true story of Alferd Packer (played by Parker), a trail guide who
is notoriously known as the first man in the United States to ever
be convicted of cannibalism, the film opens with a parody of such
movies as ‘Dead Alive’ and ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and any other
film with ‘Dead’ in the title. Blood splatters everywhere as arms
are torn apart, legs are bitten off and heads are snapped off
 a lot like the ‘South Park’ Halloween episode. Flash forward
to a courtroom scene where Packer is tried for murdering and then
eating his five fellow travel mates. As Packer later sits in jail,
he recounts his story to reporter Polly Pry, who eventually falls
in love with him, singing, ‘Perhaps I’m not the cold bitch I
pretended to be/ I’d almost forgotten this side of me.’
Though moments of the same comic wit that makes ‘South Park’
such a successful program filter in through ‘Cannibal!’, the film
is hampered by sluggish pacing and too much of a self-conscious
attitude toward its comedy, which the best of the bad, e.g. ‘The
Island of Dr. Moreau’ do not have. The film’s best moments are an
encounter with a group of Japanese men posing as a Native American
tribe that you wish the film would have stayed with longer and the
silly tunes that Parker wrote and composed himself. Just try not to
laugh when Packer sings ‘When I Was on Top of You’, an ode to his
horse.
While ‘Cannibal! The Musical’ is not mind-numbingly horrible
like ‘Godzilla’ or ‘Armageddon,’ it is not bad enough to reach the
level of aesthetic trash perfected by such prognosticators of camp
as John Waters and more recently Gregg Araki.
What is unfortunate for ‘Cannibal! The Musical’ is that it is
being released at a time when comedies about legs sticking out of
wood chippers, hair gel stronger than Joico, pedophilia and Mormon
ministers-turned porn stars (which incidentally will be Parker’s
and Stone’s next film, ‘Orgazmo’) are now the norm. With the new
trend of tasteless chic in full vogue, a comedy and musical about
cannibalism comes across as just another face in the crowd.
Tristan ThaiTriStar Pictures
Ian McKellan (left) plays a former Nazi
officer in ‘Apt Pupil,’ with Brad Renfro.
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